Computer-aided design (CAD) is ubiquitous in the design industry and is used to design all things from toys to electronic circuits. CAD is prevalent in the construction industry for developing building plans, landscaping and the like. Architects and engineers use CAD for high power drafting to provide the builders with prints of the design having the required details necessary to build the structure. These systems are generally workstations with high-speed data processing capabilities as the level of detail necessary in the drawings requires high resolution and often 3-dimensional views thereof.
In general, the developer will bring the general requirements for a design to the architect. The architect takes the general requirements and designs the structure incorporating proper engineering, structural requirements and esthetics. However, it is not possible for the designer to take into account all circumstances that arise on the job site during planning and construction. For example, when the excavator removes soil in order to places a foundation, even with soil tests, the soil may not have the requisite structural characteristics necessary for the designed structure. The builder then must bring this information back to the architect in order to modify the plans accordingly. Once the plans are modified, they are brought back to the site and to all the subcontractors affected in order to build according to the new plan. This adds considerable time and cost to the project.
The plans used for construction are very large, generally printed on 24 inch by 36 size paper so that the level of detail necessary is in easy readable form. The architect prints out the various plans, usually having multiple sheets per plan and even upwards of seven to ten sheets. Each subcontractor needs a set of plans, which increases the total number of sheets by each subcontractor.
Therefore there is a need for an improved apparatus and method for CAD to improve both efficiency and cost.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.